The month of October brings about massive bird migrations, as many of our feathered friends fly south for the winter. If you’d like to see stats on birds in your part of the woods, then you’re in luck. Simply click on the link and select your area from the search bar.
The new BirdCast Migration Dashboard provides summaries of radar-based measurements of nocturnal bird migration, including estimates of the total number of birds migrating, their directions, speeds, and altitudes. This tool depicts migration patterns in near real time or as a summary of a whole night after nocturnal periods end (2021-present); this includes additional historical information (2013-2021) as well as previous nights’ movements. Note that the dashboard currently provides data for counties and states in the contiguous US, complementing our existing forecast and live migration maps but allowing you to explore nocturnal bird migration in ways that were previously impossible. As your explorations begin, discovering interesting, new and previously unknown patterns will be, perhaps, the most exciting aspects of the new tool!
Below are the results for Arenac County, MI (my neck of the woods). As you can see, there’s lots of action going on, as approximately 570,000 birds have crossed as of last night.
I had no idea they counted the birds that fly over! Amazing
Neither did we. What a cool thing.